Gone are the days where SEO success is all about how often you can use the most popular keywords in your industry.
These days, everything is about quality – and as much of it as you can create.
The more high-quality content you can put out into the world, the more people will actually engage with, like and share that content.
In terms of your larger SEO efforts and search rankings, this creates something of a perfect storm in the best possible way.
Your content quickly begins to build on its own success and improves your rankings, which gets more and more eyes on that initial piece of content.
Visual content, in particular, is a great way to boost your SEO because you’ve got a wide range of different options available for you to choose from depending on your needs.
Plus, 65% of people are already visual learners and visual content is 43% more persuasive than other types – which means that this is one trend you’ll definitely want to capitalize on sooner rather than later.
1. Infographics
Not only do infographics increase your website’s engagement, but they’re also one of the best ways to earn high-quality backlinks!
The beauty of Infographics is that they are short, sweet and to the point.
They’re the old saying of “show, don’t tell” personified.
Since 90% of all information transmitted to the brain is already visual, it stands to reason that if you can take your important message and convey it as an Infographic, you’ll be able to increase penetration (and success) as much as possible.
To start leveraging infographics for link building, first publish an awesome infographic, around a topic relevant to your niche, then use SEO tools such Ahrefs, to find quality websites, that publish content around the topic, related to your infographic.
Once you have a list of certain websites, you can then go ahead and start sending them emails and pitching your infographic to them.
The “Guestgraphic” strategy, coined by Brian Dean, is among the top strategies to earn authority backlinks!
2. Images – And Lots of Them
Just like infographics, images also increase your website’s engagement!
Even if your idea demands to be told in the form of a blog post, it’s still a good idea to include as many relevant images as possible.
One study showed that not only are people more inclined to finish reading a blog if it’s filled with great pictures, but articles with pictures also get 94% more views than those without!
Search engines like Google, can’t read visual contents.
That’s why you always need to make sure that the image file’s name contains the right keywords, and the alt-tag matches your targeted keywords!
This way you can make sure that users can find your images when they’re searching for that specific keyword on Google or other search engines.
3. The Video Age
Equally important are videos – a type of content that is as flexible as it is powerful in a lot of ways.
Cisco’s researchers found that by 2021, nearly 82% of all internet traffic will be video traffic and that in the USA alone, 50% of Wifi connected homes use OTT apps (e.g. YouTube, Netflix and Skype) for around 100 minutes per day!
Although, video content might not directly boost your SEO, or help you rank for certain keywords, don’t underestimate the power of video.
They can help you increase your engagement, reduce the bounce rate, increase your reach, and future-proof your website.
A video can be anything – from an explainer video to a how-to video, to a product demonstration, a customer testimonial and more.
When you consider that adding even one video on a landing page can increase the conversions of that page by as much as 86%, it’s very easy to see why this is such an important form.
To get started, consider turning your most popular blog posts into a killer YouTube video!
Make sure that you’re targeting the right keywords on YouTube.
You can easily do this by leveraging a tool like TubeBuddy.
Once you have published the video on YouTube, and on your website, it’s time to start pushing it out to the masses.
Use all the tools you have at your disposal to promote your video, such as sending it to your email list and sharing it with your followers.
4. Presentations
Equally important are presentations – something that you should think of as a long-form piece of content like a white paper, only broken down into bite-sized chunks with as many relevant visuals as you can find along the way.
By incorporating these visual materials, along with an attractive design and a lot of cover, you can draw a reader into the complexities of a larger topic in a far more intimate way than ever before.
5. Screenshots
Screenshots don’t really stand on their own, but they are a great way to supplement an additional piece of content.
If you were writing a blog post to show people how to use a particular program, for example, relevant screenshots that break the process down visually aren’t just a way to make sure they understand what you’re writing – it’ll also help guarantee that they actually retain as much as possible.
6. Graphs
Graphs are another tried-but-true method of visual communication because they’re a perfect way to say a great deal – all without technically saying anything at all.
If you’re looking for the best way to illustrate the relationship between two ideas, or the ways that something has changed over time, a graph is another short-but-sweet way to do it.
It immediately speaks to the visual part of our brains and can take even complex data and translate it into a format that is almost effortless to understand.
7. Memes and GIFs
If you’re looking for a way to increase your SEO and also give your brand a flair of personality, look no farther than memes.
They’re everywhere these days, especially on social media, and they’re an easy way to both convey a simple idea and potentially go viral while you do it.
A word to the wise, however: if you’re trying to capitalize on a meme that already exists and repurpose it for your own needs, make absolutely certain you know where that meme came from.
Likewise, make sure you know how to properly use the meme in question or rest assured that you will become the brunt of every joke on the Internet for an afternoon.
8. The Visual Social Media Networks
Posting visual content on social media sites like Instagram and Pinterest is also a great way to play to the visual world that we’re now living in.
Plus, the more popular your social networking pages become, the higher your linked domains will rise in rankings on engines like Google at the same time.
A site like Pinterest is perfect for charts, graphs, and even short videos.
9. The Photo Essay
A photo essay is a really great way to capture something from all angles, so to speak.
It’s almost like the inverse of a blog.
If you wanted to show people what a day is like at your business, you would cover it in an almost photo-journalistic way and let the images do the talking.
Then, you could provide brief descriptions under each photo to kind of “guide” the narrative you’re trying to tell.
10. Image Quotes
Last but not least we have image quotes, which are exactly what they sound like – a compelling, relevant image paired with an equally compelling, probably motivational quote.
These can be funny, emotional, educational and more – so long as they’re tied directly into what your audience members are interested in.
You can even come up with your own quotes and lay them out over relevant images – the choice is yours.
As is true with so many of the other “bite-sized” formats, these are very popular on social media and get shared like wildfire – which makes this technique one you’ll definitely want to experiment with whenever you can.
Make sure that you’ve embedded the social sharing buttons on your image, so that your readers, can share the image with their friends and families on social media!
Image quotes are among the most popular types of content on social media platforms, such as Pinterest and Instagram!
Have we missed any types of visual content that maximizes SEO?
Share your thoughts with us on our User’s Group on Facebook!
